Baatur
Thinking only of their vow that they would crush the Tartars — On the desert, clad in sable and silk, five thousand of them fell.... — Chen Tao, Tang poet Baatur — in Turkic meaning "brave" or "heroic" — are the loyal cavalry retinue of the Mongol khans. Endowed with armour, vicious swords and fast mounts, these men combine the speed and cost of light cavalry with the hitting power of a knight, making them more of medium cavalry as opposed to light units. In large numbers, Baatur can even overwhelm the knightly heavy cavalry which are the pride of Christians and Muslim Turks. Fools often underestimate the strength of these fierce and relentless warriors, who if led properly are more than a match for any of the world's heavy cavalry, although they may not follow their traditions. Because they cost food and timber, Baatur have some advantages and disadvantages. The first is that because Mongolia can generate food for free based on the size of her demesne, you will be assured that in the late game, Baatur will be a viable unit to have, which can even knock out enemy knights. Food and timber are fairly easy to get, and by the Imperial Era you should be able to recruit plenty of them, making them a useful alternative to training knights and conscripts. However, there is a problem: timber is often required for the Mongols' other units, namely its special archers, conscripts, and its unique cavalry archer lines. If you used timber to build stables to pump out cavalry archers for free, you may not have much left to train Baatur, yet alone upgrade them to Tarkha''n Cavalry. Next, while they do have the hitting power of a knight, ''Baatur will suffer some difficulties going up against the more advanced heavy cavalry of the Europeans (Orthodox, Muslims (except the Turks) and Asian factions can't research Centralisation), and will be fairly easy to annihilate using anti-cavalry weapons. A European army arrayed with Men-at-Arms and gunpowder weapons complemented with Imperial pikes can easily crush a host of Baatur in the field. Mongol warriors often preferred to fight as light cavalry: indeed, Muslim sources reveal that out of every ten warriors, six of them would be trained for light roles, with the four others often being trained as lancers or heavy horse corps. This form of organisation along with brutal conditioning and discipline made the Mongol cavalry the world's most powerful army in its heyday, capable of forming an empire which stretched from the Yellow Sea in Asia to the Black Sea and the Middle East. Unit summary *Toughened medium cavalry unit capable of knocking out other light cavalry units, and swarming heavy cavalry. *For the Horde! — Due to their toughened stance, Baatur are capable of countering other cavalry units, either through sheer numbers, or by their stats alone. Once you reach the later eras, use Baatur to stiffen your ranks, especially since you cannot research Centralisation. *Bullseye — Because of their specialties, you must be careful of how you use your Baatur. True, Baatur can kill many weaker units but if you see infantry heavy infantry or cavalry, the best action would be to avoid them where possible. *Fight Knight — Knights are indeed very tough enemies, and so when using Baatur on the attack, you must build them in groups large enough to surround your opponents' cavalry. In a one-on-one battle, Baatur will die first so you must train as many Baatur and upgrade them whereso needed. *Tatar — Baatur of Tatar extraction are available to the Byzantines, Chinese and Poles as mercenary units, although they cannot be recruited until the Imperial Era and require a fair bit of teching up. Category:Medium cavalry Category:Quotations Category:Unique units